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Gold Prices Slips, Dollar Inches Up After Fed

Investing.com - Gold prices fell while the dollar inched up on Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve kept the federal funds rate in a range of 2 to 2.25% as expected.

Gold futures for December delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange slipped 0.14% at $1,231.7 a troy ounce by 1:02 AM ET (05:02 GMT).

The precious metal was down about 0.9% for the week and on track to record its biggest weekly fall since August.

On Thursday, the Fed reaffirmed expectations for a December rate hike, as it maintained its confidence that "economic activity has been rising at a strong rate." U.S. GDP growth has averaged 3.3% for the first three quarters in 2018 and markets projected growth for the final three-month to be around 3%.

So far, the Fed has raised rates three times this year and is widely expected to do so again next month.

The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was up 0.11% to 96.6.

U.S.-China trade relations received some focus after Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday, ahead of a meeting with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump, that Beijing wants to resolve problems with the U.S. through talks but Trump must respect China’s choice of development path and interests.